Mound project could tidy up state border

Historic earthen survey mounds distinguished Alabama from Spanish Florida. Once mapping is completed, the archaeological project could settle land disputes along the state border.

©Associated Press
March 31, 2002

SOUTHEAST TIP OF ALABAMA -- The line of grassy mounds that formed the historic Alabama-Florida border has mostly been wiped out by erosion and development, but a group of archaeologists is trying to remap the area.

The expedition -- using Global Positioning System satellites to pinpoint the mounds' location -- was launched by students and professors who are blending traditional land surveying methods and modern technology to mark where Alabama ended and Spanish Florida began.

"There's a lot of antiquity there and historic significance," said land surveyor and archaeologist Greg Spies, who is also an adjunct professor at Troy State University. "There are a lot of reasons to re-establish the line. But we're approaching it from a historic perspective."

The earthen mounds don't look like much -- they're small hills marked by wooden stakes driven in the center. The original mounds were built 1 mile apart, each about 15 feet in diameter with trenches around them where dirt was dug to create the circular hills.

But they represent the border marked by Andrew Ellicott between 1798 and 1800.

Spies, along with nine geomatics students, used their spring break to find the mounds. On Tuesday, the group was in Houston County charting their remains, sandwiched between Chattahoochee State Park and the Chattahoochee River. Less than 20 of the original 381 survey mounds have been identified, and only seven of those have been proved to be Ellicott's original mounds, Spies said.

"These mounds from 1799 are the oldest above-ground historic structures in this entire region," said Robert Register, who joined the modern-day explorers Tuesday.

When the project is completed, Spies said the mounds will be nominated to be registered as historic places.

"It's just interesting to learn this whole history about how they did this," said Troy State senior Brock Mathews of Enterprise. "The instruments we use today are different from the instruments they used, but you get the same result."

The project is about more than just history: It also could be used to settle numerous land disputes along the border.

The exact location of the state line remains unclear in some places, and some people have lost property in land disputes, Spies said.

In one case, an elderly Florala woman lost 100 feet of property she had lived on for 40 years, he said. In 1996, a Florida judge ruled in favor of neighboring property owners and the woman was evicted from that portion of her land.

"People just don't know where the state line is. They could be selling lottery tickets in Alabama and not know it," Spies said.

The project, funded by a grant from the National Society of Professional Surveyors Foundation, has surveyed mounds in Florala and Houston County and will continue in an area near the Perdido River.

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